It’s the day after Thanksgiving and your fridge is full of leftovers. You could just heat them all up and have a turkey-day redo. Or you could reimagine and transform some of your leftover feast into a Thanksgiving Turkey Melt.
Inspiration
A few years ago, I was completely enamored with a show called, “Best Leftovers Ever!” The premise of the show is to use leftovers and reinvent them into an entirely new dish. Now, when faced with leftovers, I see it as a challenge to conquer.
I can thank this show for inspiring me to makeover my Thanksgiving leftovers into this mouthwatering sandwich.
The Components
In my opinion, a perfect melt sandwich includes four elements: toothy bread that toasts up nicely, a savory protein, an acid/tart component, and a creamy cheese. When pulling leftovers from my fridge, I had these elements in my head.
I always keep sourdough bread on hand because it’s my favorite. I had also created a meat and cheese board to nibble on before our Thanksgiving feast and it included a large wheel of brie that was mostly untouched. Then of course I had sliced turkey and cranberry sauce. I also had a lot of turkey gravy leftover, so I figured it would make a great dipping sauce. (I wasn’t wrong)
Ingredients
Sour Dough Bread
Sliced Turkey – warmed up
Cranberry Sauce with Whole Berries (the canned stuff works too)
Brie Cheese – sliced
Turkey gravy – warmed up
Directions
The key to making a great Thanksgiving Turkey Melt is to griddle/grill low and slow. You want to allow your cheese to melt all of the components together without burning your bread.
To a cold pan, add a slice of buttered sourdough, butter side down. Next add slices of brie, followed by sliced turkey, cranberry sauce, more sliced turkey, and more brie cheese. Top with another buttered slice of sourdough, butter side up. On medium-low heat, grill the sandwich until the bottom bread is golden brown. Flip the sandwich over and grill the other side.
Once the bread is golden brown on both sides and the cheese is melted. Allow to rest a minute before cutting into triangles. Dip your Thanksgiving Turkey Melt into the gravy or enjoy on its own.
Variations
While the above version is my favorite Thanksgiving Turkey Melt, there are other variations that are also delicious and fun to make:
- Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and brie melt
- Turkey and Brie melt over mashed potatoes and smothered in gravy
- Turkey, bacon, green bean casserole, and cheddar melt
- Turkey, bacon, tomato, and American Cheese melt
